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It's Hard Not to Be Optimistic


hogan873

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I realize that the Sox played the lowly Indians last night, and Thornton and Dotel looked a little shaky, but yesterday's win coupled with taking 4 of 6 at home (including winning the series against the 1st place Dodgers) has got me a bit excited. Yes there were some homers, but there has also been situational hitting, sacrifices, speed, and a steal of home.

 

I'm holding back from comparing this team to the Sox of 2005, but the energy level has increased as of late. I do think a big part of that is Pods and his amazingly solid play. Chris Getz has started to play very well and has gotten his average up quite a bit. Plus, he pissed off Zambrano, and that makes me smile. Beckham is playing like we thought (and hoped) he would. Alexi is hitting well...he just needs to get his defense under control. Konerko has been solid all year and has seemingly re-invented himself, becoming an awesome contact hitter with decent power instead of concentrating on power.

 

With an addition here and there, I think this team easily contends in the AL Central. Beyond that may be a different story, but that's not something to worry about yet.

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Glass is half empty or half full, depending on your optimistic or pessimistic viewpoints...mixed in with realistic/pragmatic ones.

 

1) Beckham is playing out of position, and he probably profiles the best offensively at 2B

2) We pretty much have to play Anderson/Wise and Fields/Getz/Nix in every line-up

3) Quentin might never be healthy again this season...

4) How long can we expect Contreras and Richard to keep pitching as well as they have?

5) Poreda has shown some flashes, but the bullpen has looked more and more vulnerable recently, especially Liney/Dotel/Thornton

6) Pods looked like he was done three years ago, pretty much. How long can his rebirth possibly last, or for him to be injury-free?

7) Ramirez seems a lot like Soriano Lite...he can play you out of and back into games quite easily, but very inconsistent...still, a 700-750 OPS at SS is nothing to be laughed at (see O Cabrera's 2009 stats at what could easily have been a $10 million additional contract and a blocking of either Getz/Beckham from playing time, yes Dick Allen, I remember your ubiquitous comments about them offering him ARB)

Edited by caulfield12
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QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jun 30, 2009 -> 07:46 AM)
Glass is half empty or half full, depending on your optimistic or pessimistic viewpoints...mixed in with realistic/pragmatic ones.

 

1) Beckham is playing out of position, and he probably profiles the best offensively at 2B

2) We pretty much have to play Anderson/Wise and Fields/Getz/Nix in every line-up

3) Quentin might never be healthy again this season...

4) How long can we expect Contreras and Richard to keep pitching as well as they have?

5) Poreda has shown some flashes, but the bullpen has looked more and more vulnerable recently, especially Liney/Dotel/Thornton

6) Pods looked like he was done three years ago, pretty much. How long can his rebirth possibly last, or for him to be injury-free?

7) Ramirez seems a lot like Soriano Lite...he can play you out of and back into games quite easily, but very inconsistent...still, a 700-750 OPS at SS is nothing to be laughed at (see O Cabrera's 2009 stats at what could easily have been a $10 million additional contract and a blocking of either Getz/Beckham from playing time, yes Dick Allen, I remember your ubiquitous comments about them offering him ARB)

 

Well damn... We know the status of your Glass.

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QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jun 30, 2009 -> 06:46 AM)
Glass is half empty or half full, depending on your optimistic or pessimistic viewpoints...mixed in with realistic/pragmatic ones.

 

1) Beckham is playing out of position, and he probably profiles the best offensively at 2B

2) We pretty much have to play Anderson/Wise and Fields/Getz/Nix in every line-up3) Quentin might never be healthy again this season...

4) How long can we expect Contreras and Richard to keep pitching as well as they have?

5) Poreda has shown some flashes, but the bullpen has looked more and more vulnerable recently, especially Liney/Dotel/Thornton

6) Pods looked like he was done three years ago, pretty much. How long can his rebirth possibly last, or for him to be injury-free?

7) Ramirez seems a lot like Soriano Lite...he can play you out of and back into games quite easily, but very inconsistent...still, a 700-750 OPS at SS is nothing to be laughed at (see O Cabrera's 2009 stats at what could easily have been a $10 million additional contract and a blocking of either Getz/Beckham from playing time, yes Dick Allen, I remember your ubiquitous comments about them offering him ARB)

 

I agree. I suppose we can be optimistic, but cautiously optimistic. And if KW makes a move or two, will the issue of having to play Wise/Anderson be solved?

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QUOTE (rangercal @ Jun 30, 2009 -> 07:07 AM)
Well damn... We know the status of your Glass.

 

He's right, though. This team has been pretty bi-polar all year. I thought they had turned the corner after the sweep of KC. We come home and get waxed by the A's and Indians. Our deficiencies as a team haven't disappeared overnight. We still have below league average production at three positions (although Beckham has been great of late). Two major questions marks in the rotation. And our defense is arguably the worst in baseball (well, outside of the Nationals).

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QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Jun 30, 2009 -> 08:23 AM)
He's right, though. This team has been pretty bi-polar all year. I thought they had turned the corner after the sweep of KC. We come home and get waxed by the A's and Indians. Our deficiencies as a team haven't disappeared overnight. We still have below league average production at three positions (although Beckham has been great of late). Two major questions marks in the rotation. And our defense is arguably the worst in baseball (well, outside of the Nationals).

 

I see a rotation of

 

MB-Danks-Floyd-Count (if these guys are on. 1. Who cares about #5 as long as the ERA is

 

A lineup with Power and recent Speed getting around the bases not dependent on the HR. With the possibility of adding The MVP of the AL(April-Sep) imo .

 

and

 

A pretty good Pen.

 

 

 

f*** YEAH I will be optimistic! We are 4 games out in the best division to be in.

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QUOTE (rangercal @ Jun 30, 2009 -> 07:29 AM)
I see a rotation of

 

MB-Danks-Floyd-Count (if these guys are on. 1. Who cares about #5 as long as the ERA is

 

A lineup with Power and recent Speed getting around the bases not dependent on the HR. With the possibility of adding The MVP of the AL(April-Sep) imo .

 

and

 

A pretty good Pen.

 

 

 

f*** YEAH I will be optimistic! We are 4 games out in the best division to be in.

 

Like I said, we've been bi-polar. You choose to be optimistic. I have no problem with that. But I also have no problem with Caulfield or anybody else not getting too excited just yet.

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With Mitchell/Danks in 2011...Beckham, Viciedo, Flowers, Allen (at least two of those guys working out)...we should have the best team in the division if we can find just one more solid/reliable starting pitcher.

 

Of course, it seemed we had 10 starters coming up through the pipeline around 2000/01 and the only ones who turned out were Buehrle and Garland in the long-term.

 

Heck, I even think The Little Engine That Could (CJ Retherford) might make a nice story of an UFA making it to the big leagues...a good example for all our minor leaguers that success and persistence pay off, they even those players who aren't highly touted can force their way onto the radar screen (Boone Logan also comes to mind in the recent past) and KW/Ozzie will give them a shot (D.Wise is another maybe bad example to some).

 

And I'm not 100% ready to cut the cord on Dye/Konerko/AJ/Thome if it makes sense...and it does...to keep at least one or two of those guys around in 2010/11 under the right conditions monetarily.

 

I'll just put it this way....the other night when Valverde blew the save, I was thinking "hey, we're really close to being back in this thing after struggling for so long to find an identity"....now it's the pitching and Gordon Beckham that are sparking this team to life.

Edited by caulfield12
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QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Jun 30, 2009 -> 08:33 AM)
Like I said, we've been bi-polar. You choose to be optimistic. I have no problem with that. But I also have no problem with Caulfield or anybody else not getting too excited just yet.

 

I disagree with the team being bi-polar. This is the best the team has looked all season, regardless of W/L record at any other .500 point of the season. (even when we were 12-10 on May 1, I still did not like what I seen from this team)

 

I would have to say I seen a change since the Detroit series.

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It might turn out blowing that 5-1 lead against the Cubs was the reverse spark this team needed to come back to life...to realize how close they were to being 5-0 against a team that was supposed to be one of the best in the NL and outplaying them completely.

 

6-2 or 5-3 in this stretch of games coming up against the Indians and Royals and we're close to back in business. Doesn't seem like the Twins are any better off than we are (except for having two MVP's in Mauer/Morneau, and Cuddyer/Kubel are VERY solid as well in the middle) with holes like 3B, Gomez, Delmon Young, Nick Punto (I knew they'd regret that signing, would have been better off with Juan Uribe or Adam Everett), the RH set-up pitchers, etc.

Edited by caulfield12
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Overall, I'm optimistic. The hitting is coming around. But even in June, only 3 guys have been hitting over their norms--Dye, Pods and Alexei. Thome [hitting .204], Konerko, Beckham, Getz are all hitting under .250. And the Wise/ Anderson combo are both under .200. Having Quentin back in LF could be a big lift, with Wise/ BA both playing lesser roles, and Pods taking over in CF.

 

The pitching has been holding up, with a 3.44 overall ERA for June. Contreras, Floyd and Danks have been on fire. They no doubt will cool off a bit. The sox need Richard to give them quality starts or find someone who will. The bullpen hasn't blown many games, though they have been struggling lately. At least the sox have options in the minors in guys like Link, Rodriguez, Carlos Torres [who could start, esp. if Richard doesn't get his act together], and Poreda looks ready to take on a larger role in the 7th and 8th innings.

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The good news is that we're beating the teams we should be beating.

The bad news is that soon enough we'll be playing better teams.

 

The NL Central and Cleveland represent mediocre to poor competition

If we can start consistently beating Detroit again we'll be in great shape though

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QUOTE (Greg Hibbard @ Jun 30, 2009 -> 08:54 AM)
The good news is that we're beating the teams we should be beating.

The bad news is that soon enough we'll be playing better teams.

 

The NL Central and Cleveland represent mediocre to poor competition

If we can start consistently beating Detroit again we'll be in great shape though

 

At least they mixed in a good series against LA. Even without Manny LA has been a pretty dominant team this season

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KC has always been a spoiler, and they seem to always play the Sox hard. It would be nice to take care of them this week and then roll into the series against Detroit and do some damage. If the Sox play well and a few other things go our way, the Sox could be in first place by the All Star Break. I'd settle for 1 or 2 games out, though.

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QUOTE (rangercal @ Jun 30, 2009 -> 07:43 AM)
I disagree with the team being bi-polar. This is the best the team has looked all season, regardless of W/L record at any other .500 point of the season. (even when we were 12-10 on May 1, I still did not like what I seen from this team)

 

I would have to say I seen a change since the Detroit series.

 

How has this team not been bi-polar? We started off hot, fizzled, then really sucked, picked it back up a bit, started to suck again, and now are playing pretty good, like you said, probably the best we have all season.

 

I'm all for being optimistic, but this has been very up and down.

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QUOTE (BearSox @ Jun 30, 2009 -> 02:17 PM)
How has this team not been bi-polar? We started off hot, fizzled, then really sucked, picked it back up a bit, started to suck again, and now are playing pretty good, like you said, probably the best we have all season.

 

I'm all for being optimistic, but this has been very up and down.

 

I disagree. This is the first time all season where we have been playing good. Wins and losses don't always tell the whole story. So without looking at things in just black and white, I will tell you that we have not been bi-polar. We have sucked all year up until a few weeks ago. imo

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QUOTE (rangercal @ Jun 30, 2009 -> 01:39 PM)
I disagree. This is the first time all season where we have been playing good. Wins and losses don't always tell the whole story. So without looking at things in just black and white, I will tell you that we have not been bi-polar. We have sucked all year up until a few weeks ago. imo

 

This isn't the first time we've looked good. I thought we looked pretty good to open up the season. I thought we looked pretty good for a streak after the Toronto series. And we're looking pretty good now. Just because this is the best we've played doesn't mean we have sucked all year. I don't understand how you can see we have been anything but streaky.

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I prefer to be optimistc about our chances. But, every other game or so we still have the naysayers calling for wholesale trades involving Sox veterans and asking for second tier prospects in return just to dump salary. I think they forget all we have to do is finish 1st in OUR division to get into the playoffs.

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